/r/OutOfTheLoop nukes thread about Seth Rich, removing 83% of comments including all the ones not completely dismissive of the hypothesis that he leaked the DNC emails or was murdered for it

294    18 May 2017 07:12 by u/G_Petronius

7 comments

79 u/G_Petronius [OP] 18 May 2017 07:15
Notice how this: > Seth Rich was a DNC staffer who was killed last summer in what was reported as a mugging gone wrong (in which nothing was stolen). However, there is some evidence that he was in contact with wikileaks and leaking information damaging to Hillary Clinton, possibly the information that the Clinton campaign attributes to Russian hackers. > The odd timing and circumstances of his death, as well as the response of law enforcement (generally police don't immediately start searching a random mugging victim's laptop) have lead to theories that his murder was a hit carried out by or on the behalf of the Clinton campaign or the DNC. There's evidence suggesting this is a reasonable possibility, but it's not a slam dunk. was removed, but this: > He was an unfortunate DNC staffer who was killed in a botched robbery attempt. The alt-right is circle-jerking a Vince Foster-esque conspiracy out of the poor guy's death. gets to stay. /r/OutOfTheLoop's rules say: > Top level comments must contain a genuine and unbiased attempt at an answer. I'll let you decide which of these is more genuine and unbiased.
36 u/Poobyrd * 18 May 2017 13:10
Wow. That first comment should be a copy pasta. It gets the point across perfectly and lays out a narrative. It sounds reasonable enough to convince doubters to look into the case more. And in all that, maintains healthy skepticism. Bravo. The second comment is transparently biased. It also uses a propaganda technique called a thought terminating cliché to subvert the readers natural curiosity. Just labeling the skepticism surrounding Seth Rich's death a conspiracy theory will dissuade many people from looking into it. It stops their thoughts from going down that road. The term conspiracy theory (which lumps flat Earth and reptilians in with mundane political conspiracy) immediately casts suspicion on a topic. And sure, Most conspiracy theories have very little to stand on. Some are crazy. But it would be naive to assume that conspiracies don't happen. Why would the American government, right now of all times, be free from all conspiracy. What's been happening in the American politics is ABSURD. Do you think all of the political activities carried out in the US are above board? Do you think these politicians and reporters who are clearly power hungry, money hungry or both, never get into some shady buisness? But label skepticism of power a "conspiracy theory" and people stop looking into things. It also plays on the fears of being labeled a conspiracy theorist. If you look into those kinds of things, other people may think you are a conspiracy theorist. Not great for your social standing. Worse though, 'conspiracy theorist' comes with other labels like kooky, gullible, weird and worst of all crazy. Even if the conspiracy you are looking into is true, these fears lurk in people. Whether intentional or not, it also drives home a divide and conquer technique. The partisanship signals "You better not look into this if you are on our side. It hurts your team." But the truth doesn't lie on party lines. That's an uncomfortable thought for some people who are dug in deep in an ideology. It's not left vs. right. It's top vs. bottom. [Read this if you want to know more about thought terminating cliché s .] (http://jorgenmodin.net/index_html/wikpedias-now-deleted-page-on-thought-terminating-cliche) EDIT: One more propaganda technique I just noticed in that comment. It attempts to play on your sympathy for Seth Rich's family in order to get you to look away. Basically saying you're callous for using his death. But if he was murdered for whistle blowing it would be more disrespectful of his sacrifice to not look into it. Skepticism is always the correct choice. Being skeptical of the official story isn't impolite.
23 u/Seeattle_Seehawks 18 May 2017 15:59
Mods are welcome to keep nuking threads like this. Just as I'm welcome to take this as evidence that Seth Rich was murdered for political reasons. There once was a time when I would never have believed all this CTR/Shariablue stuff beyond "oh it's just Twitter posts" or whatever. But with how goddamned brazen the mods in so many subreddits are about applying this secret, scorched earth policy it makes me so fucking suspicious. I don't think the people responsible for this censorship are ignorant of the Streisand effect, even if they don't know it as that. So I am forced to come to the conclusion that they deem the risks associated with censorship to be *less* than the risks of allowing redditors to see posts like the ones in the OP. They're willing to have people see their true colors and how far they're willing to go to control the narrative so long as most people don't see what we're trying to say. ...Why go through all the trouble if we're just pushing conspiracy theories? They either know we're right ...or they're just scared that we are.
11 u/DoucheInTheBox 18 May 2017 16:49
They seem to think that that only way we humans communicate with with each other is Reddit. They can't stop word of mouth, they're signing they're own warrant here.
12 u/shitINtheCANDYdish 18 May 2017 12:00
- *You smell that son?* - *Yes Papa...it's like lavender and piss...what is it?* #*FEAR!*
3 u/[deleted] 18 May 2017 13:54
Makes you wonder.
1 u/[deleted] 18 May 2017 18:10
[deleted]